WASHINGTON, D.C. - Acting on President George W. Bush’s directive that
racial profiling is “wrong and we will end it in America,” the Justice
Department today issued a policy guidance to ban federal law enforcement
officials from engaging in racial profiling. As a result of today’s directive,
Americans of every race and ethnicity can be confident that generalized
stereotypes will have no place in the routine work of federal law enforcement.

President Bush directed Attorney General John Ashcroft on February 27, 2001 to
review the use of race by federal law enforcement agents and to “develop
specific recommendations to end racial profiling.” Implementing that
directive, on March 1, 2001, the Attorney General directed the Acting Deputy
Attorney General to review comprehensively the policies and practices of
federal law enforcement agencies to determine the nature and extent of any
racial profiling by those agencies. The Attorney General also directed
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Ralph Boyd, Jr. to draft specific
recommendations addressing potential racial profiling by federal law
enforcement. Following the completion of the study, the Attorney General
forwarded to the President a report and recommendations to ban racial
profiling in federal law enforcement.

The President accepted those recommendations and directed the Assistant
Attorney General for Civil Rights to distribute the racial profiling guidance
to all federal law enforcement, and to require that all federal law
enforcement agencies review their policies, practices, operations, and
training to ensure that they comply with the guidance.

“This new guidance follows through on President Bush’s call to ban racial
profiling in America so we can continue moving toward a more fair and just
society,” said Ralph Boyd, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. “It
builds on the efforts our federal law enforcement community has already taken
to stop the abuses of a few without hindering the work of our brave officers
who protect us every day - often at great risk.”

The racial profiling guidance bars federal law enforcement officials from
engaging in racial profiling -- even where such profiling would otherwise be
permitted by the Constitution and laws. Specifically, the guidance provides
that in making routine law enforcement decisions -- such as deciding which
motorists to stop for traffic infractions -- consideration of the

driver's race or ethnicity is absolutely forbidden. Of course, federal law
enforcement officers may continue to rely upon specific descriptions of the
physical appearance of criminal suspects, if a specific suspect description
exists in that particular case.

Likewise, when conducting investigations of specific crimes, federal law
enforcement officials are prohibited from relying on generalized racial or
ethnic stereotypes. A federal law enforcement agent may use race or ethnicity
only in extremely narrow circumstances -- when there is trustworthy
information, relevant to the locality or time frame at issue, that links
persons of a particular race or ethnicity to an identified criminal incident,
scheme or organization. These rigorous standards are designed to ensure that
racial and ethnic stereotypes will never be used to make investigative
decisions, but that law enforcement officers can rely on specific and
trustworthy information necessary to catch the criminals who victimize people
of all races and ethnic groups.

Finally, since September 11, 2001, the President has emphasized that federal
law enforcement personnel must use all available and legitimate tools to
prevent future catastrophic terrorist attacks. Terrorist identification is an
essential component of the nation’s security and requires heightened vigilance
which, under the appropriate circumstances, may include consideration of
factors such as travel patterns, visits to countries known to harbor or
support terrorist operations, suspicious identity documents, the country that
issued the person a passport, sources of support, and other probative factors.
The racial profiling guidance, therefore, recognizes that race and ethnicity
may be used in terrorist identification, but only to the extent permitted by
the nation’s laws and the Constitution.

The racial profiling guidance has been adopted by the President as executive
policy for federal law enforcement, and governs all federal law enforcement
activities effective immediately.